GWL loses GH¢1.89bn worth of processed water annually

The Ghana Water Limited (GWL) loses almost half (48 per cent) of the water it processes, translating into GH¢1.89 billion a year. 

The Managing Director, Dr Clifford Braimah, made this known yesterday at the launch of a Leakage Detection Field at the Ghana Water Institute at Weija in Accra.

“Today, we lose about 48 per cent of the total water produced in all 90 urban water systems combined. We have made huge investments to ensure accurate measurement and to identify areas within our networks where water loss occurs.

“We are transitioning from using mechanical water meters to using smart meters where water meters at places of residence and business can be read remotely. We have digitised our commercial business processes, including payment systems, installed world class meter laboratories and many more,” he said.

The Leak Detection Field at the GWL will serve as the training ground to equip relevant personnel of the utility company to identify the sound of leaks, geolocate them and fix them.

The initiative is a partnership between the governments of Ghana and Denmark.

Dr Braimah said the launch of the field marked the beginning of a rigorous practical training framework for “our technical staff and a renewed approach in Ghana Water Ltd using Danish Technology to detect leakages on our networks and fix them.”

He said the GWL’s partnership with the Kingdom of Denmark through the City of Aarhus would always be a beneficial relationship. 

Partnership

The partnership, Dr Braimah said, aimed to support efforts in Ghana that delivered safe and sustainable urban water supply, more specifically the reduction of water losses using appropriate industry technology, and that through the partnership - staff at all levels, from plumbers to chief managers, had received advanced training in Denmark, focusing on various aspects of urban water supply.

“Through the efforts of engineers from both GWL and Aarhus Vand, the Leak Detection Field has been designed and installed here on the grounds of the Ghana Water Institute.  The aim is simple, to train our engineers and technicians at all levels of management on the best approaches to detecting leakages in our networks,” he said.

Providing more information on water losses, the GWL MD said “In our effort to reduce the volume of water lost through bursts, leakages, tank overflows., we differentiate between reported leaks which is what is normally seen by the public and reported to the utility”

However, he said there were unreported leaks, or more technically background leaks, which were generally not seen and reported and could persist for years.

“The impact on our technical and financial performance is quite great, reducing pressures in the network, robbing our customers of accessing the vital resource which we have distributed, and more so preventing us from getting the much-needed funds to maintain and expand our water networks.

This is why we need to actively search for these leaks and solve them,” he emphasised.

In his remarks, the Danish Ambassador to Ghana, Tom Norring, said the event was to execute a key milestone for strategic sector cooperation, where the Danish utility, Aarhus Vand, and Ghana Water had been working closely since 2019 on reducing physical water loss in the pipes of Tema.

“If we can reduce the loss of water, we can improve the water service to the ones that do not have regular water in the pipes. Low water loss also means reduced energy consumption for Ghana water because most of the water travels more than 50 kilometres before it reaches the consumer. A lot can happen on this journey,” he said.

Journey

In order to ensure a safe journey for water, he said skilled expertise and technical knowledge were essential, adding that the joint effort between Denmark and Ghana,  “brings us closer to achieving Sustainable Development Goal Six.”

The Danish utility, Aarhus Vand, he said was a global frontrunner in tackling non-revenue water where the city of Aarhus was facing a water loss as low as 4.6 per cent.

“Three months ago, Aarhus Vand inaugurated its newest leakage detection field which will act as a twin of this leakage detection field here in Ghana – for continued learning and improvements to combat water loss,” he said.